I believe eccentricity is productive when it doesn't hurt the eccentric person or those around them. I don't believe it has to benefit everybody. In fact, I don't believe it has to benefit anybody. If it only benefits the eccentric person, or even if it has no impact on the eccentric person, then I believe eccentricity is productive as long as it doesn't harm anyone. The reason I believe this is because I believe eccentricity, by nature, is productive in that it instills diversity in our lives. This encourages people to be more forgiving and tolerant of each other, which is always a good thing. If nobody had any eccentricities and we all strictly lived by whatever was "conventional", then eventually a culture of fear would evolve around anything different from the norm.
Expanding on this, eccentricity is problematic when it starts to hurt people. By "hurt people" I mean cause a legitimate negative impact on someone's life, not just cause annoyance or mild inconvenience.
The most interesting discovery I've made in doing research so far is how much money Woolworth's lost due to the economic boycotts following the Greensboro sit-ins. My original question was: "What were the other influencing factors that led Woolworth's to desegregate their lunch counters?". Call me a cynic, but I knew there had to be more than what Ms. Tisdale talked about involved in why Woolworth's decided to desegregate their counters. What I found out was that Woolworth's lost $200,000 in sales due to the boycott that followed the sit-ins, which amounts to roughly $1.7 million dollars today. They lost all this in about six months.
The best source I found on this question was from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro: http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/cdm/essay1960/collection/CivilRights. This source is credible because it's written by a librarian from a reputable university in North Carolina and is based off primary sources from that university's own library.
Expanding on this, eccentricity is problematic when it starts to hurt people. By "hurt people" I mean cause a legitimate negative impact on someone's life, not just cause annoyance or mild inconvenience.
The most interesting discovery I've made in doing research so far is how much money Woolworth's lost due to the economic boycotts following the Greensboro sit-ins. My original question was: "What were the other influencing factors that led Woolworth's to desegregate their lunch counters?". Call me a cynic, but I knew there had to be more than what Ms. Tisdale talked about involved in why Woolworth's decided to desegregate their counters. What I found out was that Woolworth's lost $200,000 in sales due to the boycott that followed the sit-ins, which amounts to roughly $1.7 million dollars today. They lost all this in about six months.
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| With $1.7 million today you could buy a Lamborghini Reventon, pictured here |
The best source I found on this question was from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro: http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/cdm/essay1960/collection/CivilRights. This source is credible because it's written by a librarian from a reputable university in North Carolina and is based off primary sources from that university's own library.
It's interesting that you believe eccentricity is intrinsically causes diversity in society. I believe you're right. It wasn't really something that popped into my head. It's nice that we write these journals and read each other's, otherwise I may not have connected that idea.
ReplyDeleteI too believe that eccentricity is what drives diversity in our society. However I also enjoyed your research as I too wondered the same question when reading her profile. For a food chain at the time that had to be a pretty big loss of revenue.
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